Hi friends,

I ended up hanging out by myself last night. The boyfriend was feeling under the weather and he insisted I go to dinner by myself. That's what I love about him he likes his alone time and knows i love mine. I walked about 5 blocks from the hotel and ate at NOLA an Emeril Lagasse restaurant... BAM it was great. 

I sat at the bar and didn’t eat clean, it's been 3 weeks of worrying about fitting into the dress I rented for the wedding and it all went out the window as soon as I saw deep fried cajun style crab cakes, but that’s ok, I’m not going to beat myself up about it. I had 2 dirty gin martinis, made friends with some food engineers from Chicago and downed about 600 calories in 2 hours. Tomorrow I’m going to Bikram no matter what time I wake up. That’s actually what today's post is about. The effect bikram yoga has on my body. 

About a month ago I stopped attending Bikram and went strictly cardio 6 days a week. I’m training for the Tough Mudder and needed to increase my cardio endurance. Starting with 30 minutes at level 4 on the stair master (not holding on) and 1 hour on the spin bike I progressed to 35 minutes on level 5  on the Stair master (not holding on) 20 minutes on the rowing machine and 1 hour on the precore adaptive motion machine (high tech elliptical) within 4 weeks and am feeling stronger than ever.  Sadly I ended up gaining 1 pound. At first I blamed it on muscle weight but my stomachs started growing and of course I freaked out. It just didn’t make any sense to me. Why wasn’t I loosing weight? My cardio endurance has improved, my routine could be classified as torture, so what was the problem?

I got tired of feeling overweight and attended 2 Bikram classes this week and I already feel better. I sweated like crazy, pulling, twisting, and stretching my body  my stomach went down. No joke, my little  tummy looks smaller and my skin is tighter. My body loves bikram. It could be water weight, but I don’t care. My all-time favorite bikram yoga studio is located in New Orleans about 4 blocks from my hotel, the goal is to make it everyday. 

The teachers push you pass your limit and expect you to hit every pose. At first it was intimidating but now I take it as a personal challenge to impress them. For some reason my current Yoga studio in San Rafael is super hot, like "I feel like I'm going to die hot." It's the only studio close to me that has a good monthly rate so I power through it and know I'm getting stronger. The New Orleans studio is simple, inviting, not so hot and feeds my chi. The goal is to attend at least 4 yoga classes while I'm here. Give me luck friends, enjoy your weekend, I know I'm going to enjoy mine. 

Peace & Love,

Mary